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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/30125730">Unflinching Resolve</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/hallofeternity/pseuds/hallofeternity'>hallofeternity</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Halo (Video Games) &amp; Related Fandoms</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Canon Compliant, Elites | Sangheili - Freeform, F/M, Romance, Sangheili - Freeform</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-16 02:28:18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,263</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/30125730</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/hallofeternity/pseuds/hallofeternity</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Raia 'Mdama is distraught by the sudden disappearance of her husband, Jul, and muses on the events of the Great Betrayal of the Sangheili. Set in early to mid 2553, toward the end of the events in Glasslands, book 1 of the Kilo Five trilogy by Karen Traviss. Between events of Halo 3 and 4, for those who have not read the books.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jul 'Mdama/Raia 'Mdama</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Unflinching Resolve</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Raia woke with a start to the sound and feeling of a distant rumble. Thunder? Or a detonation. Her hearts were racing and she swallowed hard as she looked around the dark bedroom, momentarily disoriented.</p><p>Once, she’d been a deep sleeper- Jul liked to tease her she would even sleep through a battle. But nights of peaceful rest were long gone, somewhere in the fog of her youth. When she and Jul were still optimistic about their future and everything seemed new and beautiful. Before their sons had hatched. Before so many of their friends and family had died in the war. Now look at their clan, their keep, their world, their people. All for nothing. <em>What a waste</em>, she thought, and rubbed her aching neck. Well, Jul was wrong. Raia <em>couldn’t</em> sleep through a battle, it had turned out. She’d spent ninety hours awake during the Great Betrayal, listening to the blasts and plasma fire and screams as their world was plunged into civil war.</p><p><em>You have changed,</em> Jul had told her one of those restless nights as she had sat by the window, watching and worrying over the explosions and the glow of fires beyond the walls of their keep. <em>We have both changed,</em> she told him, and he had gone to her, rested his head on her legs and wrapped his arms around her waist. She knew he felt guilt over all of this, but didn’t fully understand why. It was not his fault that the San’Shyuum had made fools and slaves of their people. It was not his fault that the Covenant had been broken, or that the Jiralhanae were savage beasts, or that there was in-fighting on Sanghelios and by all reports, within even some Sangheili colonies. So she had just stroked his head and done what she could to comfort her husband, singing him an ancient lullaby about the mortal woman who had loved the god Urs. That was the night she’d finally managed to fall asleep after three long, exhausting days. In her reading chair, in their bedroom, with his head in her lap. He had carried her to their bed and tucked blankets around her.</p><p>A smile spread on her face. Jul and she had been together so long, yet he was just as devoted to her comfort and happiness now as he had been when they had first wed.</p><p>Ever since the Writ of Union had been obliterated, she’d suffered from insomnia. She woke at every noise. When a breeze would stir the willow trees outside their bedroom window, scraping on the walls of their home. When Jul would toss and turn beside her. When Dural and Asum would get up late at night and move around in their rooms. Raia would wake when the late spring rains began to streak from dark clouds, when the hum of a ship came too close to the keep. And, when there was thunder.</p><p><em>Was</em> it thunder? Raia sat up, abruptly, as the sound came again. Instinctively felt over on Jul’s side of the bed, as if maybe, somehow, she would find him there. But he’d been gone for a week, without a word. <em>Stop being foolish. If he came home now, he would not slip into bed beside you hoping to not disturb you. He knows you better than that. He knows that he will have to come to you on his knees, begging your forgiveness for disappearing as he did</em> . She hoped she had the chance to smack him across the face. She hoped she’d get to see him on his knees. Because that would mean that her husband had returned, and was safe, and she would forgive him, and take him into her arms and everything would be alright. She’d do everything differently when Jul was home, society be damned. Their sons would know who their father was. As if they didn’t already suspect. In her youth, she had declined so many swordsmen that the other women tittered behind her back. It was of no concern to her, though. Let them laugh and shake their heads all they wanted. But the thought of having children with anybody other than Jul was at best uninteresting and at worst horrifying. She couldn’t imagine carrying the child of another man. Jul had been her first and only love, as she had been his. Yes, things would change when he returned to Bekan keep. The boys had the right to get to know Jul as their <em>father</em>, not their uncle.</p><p>A quiet tattoo of rain began, then, and she reclined back onto the bed, listening as it began to fill the gutters, splashing down into the parched earth. It was hypnotic, musical. The smell of petrichor filled the air and she inhaled deeply. It reminded her of so many nights with Jul here, in this room, in this bed. Listening to the storms which rolled up out of the plains, lying on their sides and looking at one another in the gloom, conversing about… whatever. Anything. Everything. The excitement as they had first grown to know one another, and the comfortable friendship and familiarity after years of being together. He asked her advice, for her opinions, and he always listened intently. She told him about her concerns with the management of their keep, and confessed to him that she wanted to see their civilization be known as artists and scientists- not just warriors, followers, servants. He’d given her a little enigmatic smile as he pulled his mandibles together to hide his teeth, and cupped the side of her face with a hand. <em>You have such vision for our people, I hope I can help that future come to fruition</em>, he’d whispered. <em>That</em> had surprised her- but he was a man full of surprises. It was one of the things she loved about him.</p><p><em>Come home to me, </em>she thought, every bit of her body aching with almost a desperate, painful longing. <em>Come home to our sons, and they will know. They will be proud of you, their father. Even if you are occasionally stupid. Even if you sometimes run heedlessly into battles. Even if you act before you think. </em>He was right, of course. The Arbiter was treading dangerous waters to believe that their people could trust the humans. They were sneaky, duplicitous little creatures who would likely turn traitor as soon as it was advantageous to them. They would use this alliance, they would use the Sangheili just like the San’Shyuum had, and leave them with nothing. It was also time to heal and focus on their people- on this she and Jul agreed. They just butted heads on how to accomplish raising the Sangheili back to their former glory and nobility. And… the idea which she grudgingly admitted- maybe the Arbiter knew something which they didn’t. <em>Thel ‘Vadam is optimistic</em>, she thought. Maybe that optimism was what turned the man into a fool. And idealism had turned her own man into a fool.</p><p>A flash of light filled the room, and then another peal of thunder. Closer this time. The air trembled with shockwaves she could feel across her skin, the pressure difference reverberating across her eardrums.</p><p>Wishing wouldn’t bring Jul home. So what <em>could</em> she do. That was where she was going to start tomorrow morning. Something actionable. This was a problem she could solve. Figure out what could be done to make her desires reality. If he was dead, well. She’d deal with that if it happened. Raia would bring him home either way.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>My first Halo fic, and first fanfiction I've written in a very long time!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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